A board of Milwaukee-area religious leaders focused on interfaith dialogue has elected as its executive director a Sikh leader with an outlook of healing and forgiveness in a troubled world.

Board members of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee on Thursday elected Pardeep Singh Kaleka, the eldest son of Sikh Temple of Wisconsin founder Satwant Singh Kaleka, who died in the 2012 attack by a white supremacist on the Oak Creek house of worship.

Kaleka has worked as a police officer and educator, and in the years after the shooting has given presentations to groups and written a book alongside a former white supremacist.

The shooting that killed six plus the shooter nearly seven years ago devastated southeastern Wisconsin’s Sikh community. But it gave the area’s Sikhs a chance to respond to the tragedy in the practice of their faith: with kindness, unity and service to others.

Retiring executive director Tom Heinen remembers Sikhs serving food to first responders at a vigil after the shooting; Kaleka remembers people of other religions driving straight from their places of prayer to the temple to heal with the Sikh community.

Pardeep Singh Kaleka speaks to reporters as the board members of the Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee look on Thursday outside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Milwaukee, 4425 W. Leon Terrace. Kaleka is the eldest son of Satwant Singh Kaleka, the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin founder who was killed in a 2012 attack on the Oak Creek house of worship.(Photo: Sophie Carson/ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

In his new role with the Interfaith Conference, Kaleka said he wants to work in that same spirit.

“As we went through our moments of horror and tragedy, we looked around us and we saw Christians, Muslims, people of all different races … that happened seven years ago and it continues,” he said.

Kaleka and the other board members agreed: Hatred exists in this divided America. Having honest conversations about faith is essential to building bridges between siloed communities and taking steps toward healing, they said.

“From a democracy standpoint, when you see the polarization and the dysfunctionality and the hate and the isolation — it’s for the good of the country,” Heinen said.

Kaleka takes over from Heinen, who served as executive director for 10 years. Among its various programs, the organization hosts ‘dinner dialogues’ in homes and group settings to forge interfaith friendships.

Kaleka wants to continue the group’s outreach — especially in the workplace setting. That’s one of the shrinking number of places people from different walks of life interact, Heinen said.

And as he draws on his Sikh faith to further interfaith dialogue in the country’s most segregated city, Kaleka will make history. He’s the first Punjabi Sikh leader of an interfaith group in Milwaukee, and possibly the country.

That means a lot to a community that’s suffered tragedy as Milwaukee Sikhs have, Kaleka said.

Contact Sophie Carson at (414) 223-5512 or scarson@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @SCarson_News.